Hold Congress Accountable

Knowledge is power. It makes sure people understand what is happening to their country, and how they can make a difference. FreedomWorks University will give you the tools to understand economics, the workings of government, the history of the American legal system, and the most important debates facing our nation today. Enroll in FreedomWorks University today!

The Senate-passed tax bill is a policy triumph that will provide a shot of performance enhancing drugs into the veins of the economy. It’s not perfect, but the combined effect of cutting business tax rates, eliminating the state and local tax deduction, and repealing the ObamaCare individual mandate tax, means we are at the precipice of the biggest conservative policy victory since the Reagan years.

Whenever I’m asked whether the Trump tax cut is for the rich, I say yes. It is a tax cut for the rich. It is a tax cut for the middle class. It is a tax cut for small businesses. It is a tax cut for the Fortune 100. If you pay federal income taxes, you will in almost all cases, be getting more take-home pay come January 1.

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson has caused a bit of a hullabaloo by complaining that small businesses don’t get the benefits that corporations do in the Republican tax plan. Mr. Johnson has credibility here because he is one of those rare breeds in Congress who actually knows something about running a business — having done so for 30 years.

Time Magazine’s cover this week is a classic. It blares: “The Wrecking Crew: How Trump’s Cabinet Is Dismantling Government.” Also last week The New York Times ran a lead editorial complaining that team Trump is shrinking at an “unprecedented” pace the regulatory state that was erected to new heights under President Obama. These and other media reports have had all the subtlety of a primal scream.

President Donald Trump has proposed what he calls “the biggest tax cut since Ronald Reagan.” He also wants vast simplification so that Americans can fill out their taxes on a postcard return. Let’s hope that part of this reform package will be to defang the IRS, which treats Americans as if they are guilty until proven innocent and invades the basic privacy rights of citizens.

As the Trump administration seeks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, a key issue for U.S. trade negotiators is better and more enforceable protections of intellectual property (IP) rights. This must include more legally binding protections of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and other engines of invention and creation, which face a growing array of threats in foreign markets, including even our closest North American trade partners.

America’s trade negotiators are now in the process of crafting a 2.0 update of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Fortunately, it now appears that Donald Trump’s intention on NAFTA is to mend it, not end it. The trade deal has been a stunning economic success for all three nations: Canada, Mexico and the United States. Freer trade has meant steady increases in the volume of trade, greater competitiveness and lower prices.